merry merry christmas, and I want you to know

[mansionstaff]

Who: YOU
What: KISSLETOES
When: December 14th - January 1st
Where: Everywhere
Warnings: Sloppy makeouts.

SUDDENLY, AND WITHOUT WARNING...



The entire school has become covered in mistletoe overnight. It grows out of the walls! The ceilings! Everywhere you least expect it? HOW CAN THIS BE??

It's probably best not to think about it. Attempts to uproot the plants or burn them away only makes the plants grow back faster. For the time being, it seems the school must live with it.

[OOC INSTRUCTIONS:
+ Post dudes, get kisses!
+ Some (NOT ALL) plants are cursed. If you manage to step under a cursed plant, you will exchange a memory when or if you exchange a kiss. The memories will be first-person and very vivid, and characters will feel like they are experiencing the memory in real time, though in reality the transfer is instantaneous. Memories can be as short, long, happy, sad, or traumatic as you like.
+ If you'd like to participate, we highly suggest making a list of a few memories (with accompanying links/descriptions) that are up for grabs, and linking or posting the list in your top-level comment. Memory exchange is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. When in doubt, OOC communication!
+ PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAG YOUR CHARACTERS
+ That's it, we love you.]

Comments

[forgetbeam]

"Of course we will." He wasn't sure it was a promise. Her memory was enough to remind him that he wasn't very good at ensuring that she would in fact be okay.

"We should move on, but... I want to ask you a question, first." There was a lot he wanted to ask, really. But he lacked the words for any of it. Eventually he settled on, "do you resent me?"

KICKS THE HEART

[thereyouare]

With the way she let out a sharp gasp, you'd swear he suddenly yelled at her. However her automatic response was not so automatic today.

Grey eyes wandered along the outlines of his face, studying his mask to see if any hidden meanings might have been slipping out; words melting from a book she couldn't possibly read on her own.

Fingers were loosened from his hand, pushed away by feelings ballooning under her fingertips.

"I don't know," she began. "Taka... is it normal when you think of someone... you, uhm... don't like yourself?"

[forgetbeam]

It was a feeling he could certainly relate to. When thinking about Mondo and everything he hadn't been able to do to stop his fate at Hope's Peak. His contributions to destroying their friendship at Smash. When thinking about Aoi and his shortcomings romantically.

When thinking about Vivian and all the pain he had caused her.

But was it normal? He was always just aware enough to know that he operated a little differently from normal people on an emotional level. At least, he was always positive that was the case.

He let her hand fall away from his, and he stepped back, staring at her with that harsh red gaze. This wasn't a road he wanted to go down, but here they were.

"What do you mean? Is there something about me that makes you not like yourself...?"

[thereyouare]

Ah, yes. Here they were, all because she had an innate desire to be pure and honest with him and literally no way to understand and control it consciously.

The reality of it was she knew that she upset him. She often made mistakes and though they discussed learning from them, she never got much better. Hajime was someone important to Taka and she always seemed to create a different mood the moment she entered their space. Vivian may not have the intellectual capacity to convert her emotions into words, but she felt them all the same. They were more present to her than the organs in her fleshy body she cherished so much. More often than not, they were a cancer occupying more space than her body allowed.

A welcomed disease, but suffering nevertheless.

Never in her life did she think she would have to lie to Taka, but in her head, it made sense as to why.

"Everything," a struggled voice revealed, a tone far different from any she had used before. Perhaps because this was the first time.. well, for a lot of things.

[forgetbeam]

It was amazing how a single word could carry enough weight to crush everything beneath it. Kiyotaka was plenty aware of the fact that he'd caused Vivian plenty of grief, but to hear her admit it with such a startlingly unfamiliar tone brought a new wave of despair over him.

If he wanted so badly to ensure that she had a happy life, the best thing he could do for her was to stop being a part of it. In deciding that, suddenly he understood just what Mondo had been feeling when he denounced their friendship for similar reasons all those months ago. That severance caused Kiyotaka so much suffering, and this was bound to cause Vivian the same, but...

...it would probably be less than it would be otherwise.

"Then..." His own voice sounded so far away. Somehow he thought the words would be harder to say, but they came out automatically, as simply and hollowly as though he were reading from a script. "It's better that you don't think about me anymore. We should part ways. For good."

It would be difficult to avoid each other when they both lived on the same campus, but doable. If anything, it would give him an opportunity to keep an eye on her from a distance. He turned his back on her, because keeping an eye on her right now would hurt just a little too much.

[thereyouare]

It was a good thing he did, too, because she couldn't keep her eyes from breaking. They were leaking again, flooding her cheeks with unspoken words. She made a little noise of agreement since he couldn't see her, and she turned her back on him as well.

She understood that she made everything harder for him. She had been so selfish this whole time and it was the first time she realized she was a real problem. She tried so hard to be good to avoid facing that truth, but the reality?

She was dysfunctional. She didn't work. She was broken as a human and could no longer go back to being a machine.

So now she knew what she had to do. Someday when she was a better everything - not so fractured, not so damaged - then maybe she could come back to him as a proper friend - a proper person.

She carefully moved down the halls to avoid getting caught again. The least she could do was start trying more right away.

[forgetbeam]

Not so much as a word of protest. He'd expected some kind of fight, but it made it a lot easier this way, didn't it?

(It should have hurt less, too. It didn't.)

He wondered just how long she'd been waiting for an opportunity like this, then. He half-turned to watch her go just in time to watch her disappear behind a corner before he continued on in the opposite direction.

He just hoped his attempts to teach her how to make it on her own sank in, at least a little bit.

[forgetbeam]

BUT THEN HE TURNED THE CORNER AND SLAMMED A FIST AGAINST THE WALL LIKE

FUCK I FUCKED UP

THIS IS CANON

[thereyouare]

She swings back and punches him in the fucking skull for damaging school property

[forgetbeam]

PAPA TO THE RESCUE

[iamtheeggman]

Perhaps she wasn't looking close enough, because rounding a corner she walked right into a wall of blubber. "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE--Vivian?" Eggman was about to start ranting, until he realized who it was. "I TOLD you to be more careful--"

He cut himself off again, only this time it was because he noticed something else. "...You're crying."

PAPAAAAAAAAAAA

[thereyouare]

Tipping her head back to look up at him, she looked like she had been hit in the face with a water balloon. No, no, no, she didn't want the Doctor to know she was broken too.

Quickly moving her arm to cover her eyes, she forced a smile.

"I'm n-not malfunctioning, Doctor."

[iamtheeggman]

"Crying is not the same as malfunctioning," he told her, kneeling down and cupping her chin to look her over. "What happened? Did someone hurt you?"

Does papa need to choke a bitch.

[thereyouare]

Probably.

Lying to the Doctor was not acceptable - but neither had been lying to Taka. That's what hurt so much when she did it. She really lied to him, but she knew in some way that it was better she stop making things so difficult for him, right?

Well, if only she could tell the Doctor that. "T-Taka... I..." Oh no, here it comes, snot and all. Stupid human body was really wonderful but when she couldn't make her lungs work, it was stupid.

[iamtheeggman]

Eggman knew her being around Kiyotaka was a bad idea. Not just because of her past with him, but because of what he knew about his time at Hope's Peak (THANKS BOWSER). Reaching into his coat pocket, he produced a handkerchief, monogrammed with the Eggman Empire logo (because of course it was) and handed it to her.

"What did he do to you?" he asked again.

[thereyouare]

Taking his offering and looking at it, she wasn't entirely sure what to do with it since her head was muggy with emotions. She just clutched at it weakly, trying to catch her breath.

"S-sorry... I-I am broken. I'm a broken h-human, Doctor. Please understand. I w-won't make mistakes anymore. I'll g-get better. I w-will be perfect. I won't get in t-trouble anymore...and everyone will be happy!"

Talk about rapid fire thought processes.

[iamtheeggman]

Eggman had no idea what she was going on about. But he hated seeing her leaking crying like that. He took hold of both shoulders and looked her in the eye.

"You listen to me," he started off. "Human beings are not perfect, and never WILL be perfect. They all make mistakes." Even him, but he wasn't going to admit that. "It's part of being human. If you make a mistake, then all you can do is accept it, learn from it, and move on. Try to make up for it if you feel you can." Or, you know, never learn and try to blow up the planet or brainwash the human race or any of the other stupid things Eggman has done in his life. BUT THIS ISN'T ABOUT EGGMAN'S HYPOCRISY.

"Unless you intend to give up that humanity, then that's the best you can do, or ANYONE can do. Do you understand?"

[thereyouare]

So it really was true... Taka said something along the same lines. A lot of people have - and even the Doctor, one of her most trusted people. Her family, as far as she was concerned.

But she didn't understand one thing...

"T-then why do I make everyone so sad?" And it hit her like a bullet train. "Doctor...?! Do I make you sad, too?!"

[iamtheeggman]

Eggman waved his hand as if to brush it off. She made him feel all sorts of things, but none of them sad. "Pssh. You don't make me feel sad at all," he told her plainly.

But he looked down at her, how upset and worried she was that she was perhaps disappointing him, or those around her. Sometimes he really hated how easily she seemed to have worked her way under his skin. Perhaps that's why he seriously entertained the thought that he had. It likely wouldn't change her opinion of him, but it might put her own problems into focus. Hmm. How he hated the power she had over him sometimes.

He got to his feet, offering her his hand. "Vivian. Do you want your memories back?" he offered her.

[thereyouare]

Her wheezes came to a crawl, breath mostly knocked back into his place by his offer. Her vision was blurry, eyes stinging red from all the crying. This offer... it had come up once before. Heck, she'd been given the option plenty of times to really take back what was stolen from her, but she opted not to. She always thought there was a good reason why, and she trusted those around her.

Not once, however, did it occur to her that not having them was creating problems that she couldn't understand. She knew some of the events but had no attachments to them - not really, anyway. What else had been taken when the Doctor did what he had to to save her?

With her leaving Taka alone, she almost saw no reason to hold back anymore. She had already lied to him. Could she do much worse by accepting the Doctor's offer now?

Unlikely.

Her shivering shoulders slowed, resolution gathering at the peak of her heart like warriors on their final battlefield. It came almost too easily, she realized, when she replied,

"Yes."

[iamtheeggman]

"Then come with me," he told her, taking her hand and leading her out to the parking lot, where his Eggmobile was double parked, because of course it was.

He still didn't know how great an idea this was, but if it helped Vivian... A short flight up to the Egg Carrier later, and she was taken to his robotics workshop. He walked to the computer console, gesturing to the examination table. "Lie down there," he told her.

[thereyouare]

A table she was familiar with. Vivian obediently wandered to the table and crawled on. It was cold against her thighs, and she wondered if she had to change back into her old body for this, too.

Uneasiness. Anxiety. It was clear on her face.

[iamtheeggman]

Eggman punched in some commands on his computer, retrieving the data files containing Vivian's backed up memories, stored when he did his procedure to repair and restore her. He still wasn't entirely sure this was the right thing to do, but she was suffering. Perhaps this would help her sort out whatever was wrong with her.

He came up behind her on the table, placing a metal band around her head, wires trailing off to his computer. "Your mind is still digital enough for this to work," he explained under his breath. "There may be some... tingling. But it won't be long. Are you ready?"

[thereyouare]

A firm nod.

"Yes, Doctor. P..." Deep breath and let it out slowly. "Please."

[iamtheeggman]

With a nod, he returned to the console and activated the device, streaming Vivian's memories back into her head...